gotdurt

Haha, I shall use my finest bath scale. I would expect about 6-6.5 lbs.

BMX trick bike even...

Where do you people find the time?!

Looks like I may have found what is clogging up his process; this guy had an order of about a dozen gravel frames being built along side mine... Sounds like he has a shop or something, guessing these are for resale. Regardless, I got my tracking number today, it's on its way...

It would make sense, except I didn't even notice her until after it bit me. That was one way to get a number, too bad it was wasted on a married guy.

I used to feel that way, until I got bit on the ankle while riding BCGB by a black lab of all breeds... Didn't see it coming, drew blood on both sides. Owner was hhhaaaawt...

Yep, he posted it on YT too.

I'll probably head over some time tomorrow; if it's not ridable, I'll probably resume the stump removal project that I started a while back.

Yeeeaaaa, y'all enjoy that road...

I think you're tad optimistic.

Yea, don't do that, you'll be terribly disappointed 😀 I was actually thinking about that though, and how sometimes on the big mountains, just to ride the segments that I like, I always end up feeling like I'm wasting time and energy on lesser trails getting to/from my fav's. Trestle is a really good example; some of my favorite trails anywhere, but I couldn't help but get that feeling of, "ugh, this again?" In order to ride the segments I like. One run from top to bottom could be 1/2 an hour, and 1/2 way down I'm already ready to be done with that run... This park won't have that problem... it's only problem will be riding the same 2 trails 20 times in a day

True, but that's hella better than 15 up, 3 down...repeat, etc (and being fresh at the top) I might actually ride this summer!

From the attached pdf: Reynolds 725 is roughly 50 percent stronger than Reynolds's non-heat-treated tubing, Reynolds 525 (and, for the sake of comparison, Reynolds 525 is the equivalent of the American Iron and Steel Institute standard 4130 chrome- moly steel, which is used to build world-class bicycles). Also from the same website, a good explanation of bike tubing metallurgy: https://www.adventurecycling.org/adventure-cyclist/online-features/2018-cyclists-travel-guide/ Also quite a few good forum discussions online, here's a good one I came across: https://www.bikeforums.net/framebuilders/933018-reynolds-725-tubing-quality-stuff.html metallurgy.pdf

Yea, hard to imagine how he makes it work, but he's busy and customers are happy. I assume it has something to do with being in Peru, haven't looked at exchange rates... but as a business owner myself and someone who knows enough about the process and welding experience, if I were a builder, I certainly wouldn't mess with it for $400, even if it was all profit. Heck, it would take that much just to get me to set up the welder...#americanperspective

He claims 3-4 weeks build time on his website, mine was more like double that... but I knew 3-4 had to be pretty optimistic; some of the pics he sent me had quite a few frames and/or drawings in the background, so I think his workload is growing... but, most custom builders I've known have a minimum 6 mo lead time, and Ganderson's Guerilla Gravity took a few months, and it wasn't even custom geo, so I'm fine with it. I'm also in no hurry to get rid of the frame it's replacing.

My offer, eh? Seriously though, if it comes out even close to realistic expactations, I'll be happy to be an ambassedor for the guy. Gussets were my own spec; he'll do just about anything you want, take a look at the photos on his fb/IG

There's a fine line between badass and stupid as hell.... or is there overlap?

That's exactly why I went with a 44mm straight headtube, so I can fine-tune with a CC Angleset or the like.

Exactly. Of course, once you got the head angle where you wanted it, you lost around 10-15mm of reach and raised the BB as well, so that's why knowing whether it's sagged or not is so important.

I don't know, I seem to find drama everywhere I go... I like to think of it as a talent, as it makes for good stories 😄

Haha, speaking as someone who is red/green colorblind, your green is most likely my brown... or yellow, if it is lime green.

And I also wish there was more consistency in geometry charts for hardtails; a few (very few) brands will show both static and sagged, which is ideal; some show sagged only (and state it), which is most important; others show (stated) static, which is okay, because at least I can calculate it, but too many don't specify static or sagged at all, and those I skip, because I don't have total faith that whomever answers my email actually knows.

I missed Orange (I thought they were all AL), but looked at several other steel frames before going this route; Cotic, Chromag and Stanton in particular, but every option had compromises that I wasn't happy with. I've ridden enough frames in my years though that I felt I have a pretty good grasp at the geo I want, and settling for someone else's numbers wasn't good enough. Plus, I figure at $400ish, I get 2 tries to get it just right. The color... haha, I've always hated tan, or any other shade of brown! Then Toyota came out with the "quicksand" color on their trucks, and something changed... I figured, if I'm experimenting with the frame, why not add color to the experiment? This is actually the hex code picked from a highlight (to make it a little lighter) on a photo of a Tacoma... I designed it to run with a 150-160 fork, but it would work well with 140, too. Yep. The consensus in my small circle of "old men" is "I'm too old for a hardtail", but I'm leaning the opposite direction, plus life is to short to be futzin' with tuning, maintenance, etc. For me, there's more of a "game" in riding a hardtail smooth, and I find I enjoy that engagement more. Full suspension bikes have suspension sag too (under rider weight; it's accounted for in your setup), but it doesn't affect the geometry much, other than BB drop, because both ends sag similarly. However, a hardtail only sags on one end, and as mack_turtle said, this has a significant effect on all angles, especially with longer forks. For instance, with my 150 Yari, the static (no rider) reach of the drawing above will be around 430mm, and the head angle is 63.8*, but accounting for a max of 30% sag with rider, the reach goes to 442mm with 65.5* HA. Not too bad, but there was a little learning curve. He speaks a little English, enough to get the point across, especially with the help of photos, etc.. I learned to make statements and questions as simple, succinct and efficient as possible. The program he uses ( www.bikecad.ca ) does the work geometry-wise, and he has the pro version to make tweaks to your basic design (gussets, tubing bends and nuances, dropout type, etc). If you decide to do it, let me know and I'll give you some pointers based on my experience. The pricing on his website is slightly misleading, as it's trials/BMX biased (this is where he started); I'll end up with around $450 invested, still 1/2 that of the other frames I was looking at. I went with the Reynolds 725 heat treated Chromo option, too. Keep in mind this is steel, which is easily reparable. If we were talking about aluminum or carbon, I'd pass. But, at this price, it's worth a gamble; if it breaks and for some reason can't be repaired, I'll just order another one redesigned to be stronger in the failure area... two frames will still be about the same or even less than buying a frame with a 1-2 year warranty. In my research online though, including contact with owners, I have yet to find a single failure report. Also, this is an experiment; I intend to order another frame with tweaks to get it perfect, and once everything is exactly how I want it, I won't feel so apprehensive about dropping $1500-2500 on a higher-end custom frame in the future.... Imagine investing that much into a custom steel frame, only to find out it didn't work the way you thought it would...

In the past couple of years, I've been really enjoying my current hardtail (Nukeproof Scout 275); not just the fun side of it, but the simplicity and dependability... especially in the past year, with my FS headaches. The only thing that could make it better would be to make it steel, along with a few minor tweaks in geometry... This made me wonder if I could design a hardtail that would make me happy enough to pull me away from FS... Being that this would be an experiment, I certainly couldn't justify the cost of the typical custom builder... A few years ago, I had read about a guy in Peru, "Marino Bike" (fb page), that makes custom chromo frames, cheap... there wasn't much about him online at the time, but experiences that I could find were mixed; it was interesting, but I didn't give it much thought. This year though, another PB article popped up in my fb feed with a pretty good review; I was now intrigued, and went to see if more people had tried him since my last search... it appeared that his work had greatly improved, and his prices were still ridiculously low. I did some checking around, messaging everyone I could find that used him, and folks were quite happy... the biggest challenge was the language barrier, but everyone seemed to get past it okay. So, I poked at it... I sent him a fb message with some questions, to feel-out his communication ability, and it went well enough. I also felt him out on pricing etc, and the process... before long I had this ready to go (geo w/sag): We worked out a few other details (dropout type, gussets, etc), made a $100 deposit, and I was in-queue... It seems he has several frames going at once, and he works the process in phases; he'd send an update at each phase (the following photos were all taken by Marino Bike): We are going over shipping details, etc tonight... stay tuned.

The older I get, the more I feel that way... and not having health insurance helps keep risk-taking to a minimum as well. Of course, it's all subjective and I know some people think that the way I ride today is still risky and I love me some Arizona trails, but I draw the line at White Line. With that said, I have always been afraid of heights, but have also been amazed at what I have overcome without realizing it in the moment, all because I was so focused on the trail and the ride that I didn't even notice the exposure... I've even gotten home and reviewed my GoPro footage only to get to sections where I thought, "oh crap! I didn't even notice that on the ride!"